“Bruce’s installing that crazy mini-satellite dish made him think of a verse he once heard or read about shouting the good news from the housetop. Matthew 10:27 said, ‘Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops.’ … Wasn’t it just like Bruce to take the Bible literally?” [Read more...]

Here’s a terrific bit of American history from Glenn Branch. In the February 1916 issue of National Geographic, the author of Life Histories of African Game Animals wrote about the evolution of “the primates” and of “the monkeys and anthropoid apes and finally the half-human predecessors of man himself.” This raised the ire of creationist preacher Theodore Graebner [Read More...]

Some Monday morning linkage, including: Why the burning of a black church isn’t “news;” Canadian indie-rock vs. giant robots; white riots, creationists, and a story about some whip-smart Kenyan kids that will make you smile. [Read more...]

This bargain — the exchange of phlebotinum for our willing suspension of disbelief — is conducted by countless storytellers in the realm of science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic books, action movies, detective stories, etc. And this same bargain is made, regularly, between young-Earth creationists and the fans of that genre of speculative fiction. Young-Earth creationism is all about phlebotinum. [Read more...]

Unlike Kirk Cameron, the professional hucksters driving young-Earth creationism — the Ken Hams and Al Mohlers of the world — understand enough about evolution and common ancestry to recognize that the search for a croco-duck is nonsense. They offer a more sophisticated version of Cameron’s “transitional forms” argument — one that is less ignorant and far less honest. [Read more...]

Gary Cass is the pro-violence, pro-death guy who wants to kill a billion human beings. The rest is just trivia and details. I mean, once you announce that you’re advocating violence and the death of 2.6 million American citizens, the rest of your résumé becomes pretty irrelevant. [Read more...]

“Inerrancy” is a kind of conspiracy theory. In this framework, theologians and biblical scholars are the equivalent of Air Force spokesmen. Seminaries are Area 51 (“they” will never admit what really goes on in there). [Read more...]